Go-between with French hostages

2004-10-01 14:44

Paris - An unofficial French negotiator told a radio station on Friday that two journalists who have been held hostage for more than a month in Iraq could be released within hours.

Philippe Brett told Europe-1 radio that he was with the two French hostages and that negotiations were being finalised for their release.

Christian Chesnot, 37, and George Malbrunot, 41, disappeared August 20 with their Syrian driver while apparently driving toward Najaf. Militants calling themselves the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility, demanding that France revoke a new law banning Islamic headscarves from state schools. The law went into effect as planned.

"I think within 10 hours I can speak with great pleasure," Brett said, but would not give any further details. "I don't want to compromise this operation, which is already sufficiently complicated."

Unofficial negotiator

Brett is not an official negotiator for the French government. However, he has worked in Iraq for years - including when the country was under United Nations sanctions - mainly through the French Office for Development of Industry and Culture, which he helped found.

Brett said on Wednesday that he had met with the French captives and been given a promise they would be released.

The accord includes the captors' broadcasting an audiotape in which they announce the men's imminent release, he said, adding that the deal does not involve a ransom.

"We were able to reach this agreement without paying any money," Brett told Al-Arabiya television network on Wednesday.

Questions over Brett's credibility immediately arose, but lawmaker Didier Julia vouched for Brett during a television interview earlier this week.

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Herve Ladsous said he could not comment on the report of the hostages' imminent release.

Ladsous said that Julia, who is a member of President Jacques Chirac's party, the Union for a Popular Movement, is currently in Damascus, Syria, and in contact with the French Embassy. Brett also travelled to the Syrian capital on Thursday. He had been in Amman, Jordan.

Close to the extreme right

France said on Thursday it had sent the Foreign Ministry envoy, Jean-Pierre Lafon, to Amman.

Earlier in the week, the Foreign Ministry said it had no knowledge of a deal to free the journalists.

Brett's organisation worked for the lifting of UN sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

According to the newspaper Le Monde, Brett is close to the extreme right and once served as driver and body guard for Bruno Gollnisch, a leading figure in France's far-right National Front party.

- AP